Thursday, October 18, 2012

That was awful. Just awful. I know there's things I should be happy about this season, but to go out in that fashion is just mind-numbing and incredibly disappointing. This team found its stride in the final 4 games of the regular season, entered the playoffs looking like they were primed to break out, and they just stopped hitting. They stopped hitting and never started again, they just got worse. Credit to the pitchers, but a heaping helping of blame and shame on the Yankee hitters. Heads are going to roll this offseason. Count on it.

Seriously. It’s getting out of control. It doesn’t surprise me that it’s A-Rod attracting all this negative attention and drama, because that’s what’s always followed him around his whole career and that’s always been SOP since the day he joined the Yankees and the New York media horde that follows them. What surprises me is how logic has completely gone out the window when talking about A-Rod and his struggles and his future in the organization. It’s almost as if everybody has been sent back through a time warp to 2006-2007 when bagging on A-Rod for anything and everything was the “cool” thing to do and it's absolutely asinine.

Lost in all the talk about the sputtering offense, ever-changing lineups, and who Alex Rodriguez is or isn’t talking to in the stands has been the quietly valuable performance of a one Russell Martin. You remember him, right? The guy who spent the majority of the regular season batting below the Mendoza Line and then turned things around enough in September to probably earn himself a new deal with the Yankees next year? It wouldn’t be all that surprising if you had forgotten about him; his .172/.250/.310 tripleslash in the postseason isn’t exactly a resume builder and is more representative of his early-season struggles than his strong finish. But after playing through what is always a grueling regular season for a catcher, Martin has been out there behind the plate for every playoff game, has done a very good job back there, and that is something that should not be discounted.

(Good thing the tarp was out to protect against the rain that wasn't falling. Courtesy of the AP)﻿

The Yankees have already gotten screwed enough by the scheduling of this year's postseason. They started the ALDS on the road despite winning their division and having the best record in the American League; they faced a compressed ALCS schedule that could have required them to use a 5th starter. So I guess it's only fitting to have them lose the one positive thing they still had going for them thanks to last night's rainout.

Personally, I thought it made more sense to start the game, try to get as much in as they could before the rain, and then wait it out and finish late night/early morning. It would have cost both teams their starters, but with the forecast in Detroit not looking much better tonight or tomorrow, at least they would have had a better chance of getting the game in. In any case, the Yanks and Tigers will try again tonight, and with CC still the scheduled starter the advantage is still Yankees. But there are a lot more negatives that came with last night's cancellation than positives.